systems analysis

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

n. The study of an activity or procedure to determine the desired end and the most efficient method of obtaining this end.

n. The act, process, or profession of systems analysis.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. the scientific analysis of systems, and the interactions within them

n. a range of techniques used especially in commercial computing in which the needs of a company or its staff are analysed and translated into a technical description of the necessary software - which is then created by programmers